RIL to become debt-free this year: Ambani

 

Corporate giant Reliance Industries' Chief Mukesh Ambani today announced that the company would become debt-free in the current financial year.

Announcing a bullish stance on the company's financial position, the Chairman and MD said that RIL would become debt-free on a net basis in the current 2011-12 fiscal.

RIL had outstanding debt of Rs 67,397 crore ($15.1 billion) as of March 31, 2011, as against Rs 62,495 crore ($13.9 billion) a year ago.

At the same time, RIL had cash and cash-equivalents of Rs 42,393 crore ($9.5 billion) as on March 31 this year, which was nearly double the level seen a year ago.

These were mainly in fixed deposits, certificate of deposits with banks, mutual funds and government securities/ bonds.

Addressing the company's shareholders at its 37th AGM here, Ambani said that RIL's enterprise value stood at about $75 billion.

He said that RIL's revenue has grown by 28% on year-on-year basis over the past 33 years since its IPO, while profit and market capitalisation have grown by 33% on an average every year during this period.

Hightlights of RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani's AGM speech:

• Reliance to become debt free this year
• RIL's free cash at Rs 42,393 crore
• Proposed dividend payout of 80%, highest among Indian firms
• Polyester capacity to be hiked to 3.6 million tonne
• To set up 15 million tonne per annum gas cracker plant at Jamnagar
• Exports now 57% of total turnover
• RIL enterprise value at $75 billion
• RIL is single largest investor in upstream space
• KG-D6 has supplied 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas since production began
• Higher commodity, input prices remain a challenge
• Reliance Retail soon to launch cash-and-carry format, RIL plans aggressive investments in retail
• Says Reliance Retail is largest food retailer in India
• RIL to create end-to-end solutions in digital services, will create national broadband infra

Full report awaited ...